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Standing up for locals

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Full credit to Times Newspapers for its attempt to back a regional
newspaper’s fight for open justice – even if it did ultimately end in
failure.

On behalf of the national media, Times lawyers fought
for an appeal against a ruling that prevented the South Wales Argus
naming a woman who had infected her lover with the HIV virus without
telling him she was carrying it.

Her anonymity was protected on
the grounds that the lover and the woman’s children, now in care,
needed to be protected from the publicity surrounding the case.

The
upshot is that the men of Newport will have no idea of the woman’s
identity when she is released, even though it’s clearly in their
interests to know it.

The appeal bid may have failed, but it’s
good to see regional and national media standing together in an attempt
to prevent Family Courts eroding the principles of open justice for all.